Land Subdivision

When a person wants to subdivide out a parcel from a quarter section of land, adjust the boundary between two existing parcels or develop a multi-lot subdivision, the Municipal Government Act and the Land Titles Act require that they obtain the approval of the County. In order to enable consistent decision making by the Subdivision Authority, County Council developed policies in the Municipal Development Plan. In summary the current policies provide that:

Every landowner of an unsubdivided quarter section has the right to subdivide two parcels out of a quarter section without the requirement to rezone the parcels out of the Agricultural District. Farmstead parcels of a size that accommodates the farm yard up to 10 acres and bare parcels of up to 5 acres must make a financial contribution to the Rural Development Fund in the amount of $50. For farmstead parcels larger than the actual farm yard and bare parcels larger than 5 acres the financial contribution to the Rural Development Fund is $1,000 per acre.

When a landowner wants to subdivide additional parcels out of a quarter section, i.e. a third or additional parcel(s), the minimum number of parcels that must be subdivided out is five (certain exemptions apply). This means that after the first two parcels have been subdivided, a landowner must undertake multi-lot subdivision if they wanted to subdivide additional parcels. The multi-lot subdivision process is more involved and requires several planning approvals, some of which are on provincial level, including an area structure plan, engineering studies and a development agreement which includes a security deposit for all improvements that will be transferred to the County (e.g. public roads). The developer also has to dedicate environmental and/or municipal reserves to the County.

When a landowner subdivides a second or additional parcel(s) out of a quarter section the County will require the dedication of environmental and/or municipal reserves, the latter typically in the form of cash in-lieu-of land. The manner of determining and agreeing on the land values for this purpose is explained in Policy 1.32 Municipal and Environmental Reserve Values.

The Municipal Government Act states that a municipality must make a decision on a subdivision application within 60 days of receiving a complete application. Usually the County is able to meet this processing timeline, however if we do not, the applicant has the option of deeming the application refused and appealing it to the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board or enter into an agreement with the County to extend the timeline. The County's subdivision application form provides for such an agreement.

If you are planning to apply for a subdivision in the County it may be helpful to review the Land Use Bylaw, the Planning and Subdivision Guidelines and other relevant County policies in order to better understand the statutory requirements and the format and content requirements of an application. Also, in order to save your time and resources, it is advisable to call the County's Planning and Development Services to discuss your proposal before you file an application.

The applicant must also obtain written confirmation from an accredited Safety Codes Officer that the sewage disposal system complies with the Private Sewage Disposal Systems Regulation (Alta. Reg. 229/97) respecting the setback distances from property lines, buildings, bodies of water and water sources. Please note that any issues identified by the Safety Codes Officer regarding the operation of the sewage disposal system must be corrected before the final approval will be given to the subdivision application.